Air India flight delayed as busy bees clasp the plane

Kolkata, Sep 16: A Kolkata-Agartala Air India flight was delayed for spherical two hours on Sunday after a swarm of bees used to be realized in front of the aeroplane while it was taxing down the first runway in Kolkata, an airlines official mentioned.

Reportedly, the flight AI 743 with 136 passengers and crew contributors on board was scheduled to depart at 9: 40 am.

While the Airbus A319 was moving towards the runway for take-off the swarm of bees were spotted by the pilots. The pilots stopped the aircraft as further movement could have damaged the plane and harmed the passengers if the bees were to enter inside through the engines, the Air India spokesperson said.

Immediately, the airport fire services personnel were called in to tackle the situation. After checking that the bees did not enter the aircraft nor any damage was caused to the plane, the flight was given a go-ahead.

The flight was earlier delayed for some time due to a technical snag. The plane finally left for Tripura at 12:45 pm.

"There was a technical problem due to which the take-off was delayed. Then the aircraft was stalled by bees. The fire services department was called and finally, the aircraft could take off at 12.40pm," said an Air India spokesperson.